Green Belt Development for Industries in Shahad, Ulhasnagar.

At Shahad, green belts around process plants now face housing as well as roads. A belt planted decades ago may have gaps where trees died or land was taken for other uses. We survey what stands, fill gaps with species that tolerate industrial air, add denser planting where the plant faces homes, and set up a tree register. The belt then does two jobs: screening the plant for neighbours, and meeting the consent condition.

Shahad sits on the boundary between Ulhasnagar and Kalyan, around its railway station and the road that runs from Kalyan towards Murbad. The Ulhas flows close by. The area is best known for the large Century Rayon works, a long-established plant producing viscose rayon and chemicals, whose campus occupies a large tract of land. Around it are older residential colonies, markets and, more and more, new residential towers. Few places in this crowded belt put heavy industry, a river and new housing so close together, and the view from a fresh tower balcony often takes in all three.